Forced labour
ENCYCLOP∆DIA BRITANNICA
Forced labour, also called Slave Labour, labour performed involuntarily and under duress, usually by relatively large groups of people. Forced labour differs from slavery in that it involves not the ownership of one person by another but rather merely the forced exploitation of that personís labour.
Forced labour has existed in various forms throughout history, but it was a peculiarly prominent feature of the totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (especially during the rule of Joseph Stalin), in which it was used on a vast scale. Under these regimes, persons either suspected of opposition or considered racially or nationally unfit were summarily arrested and placed under long or indefinite terms of confinement in concentration camps, remote labour colonies, or industrial camps and forced to work, usually under harsh conditions.